Sunday, 22 December 2013

Food Tripping in Nice

One of Nice's beautiful sun streaked arcades

When gifted photographer and fellow food-obsessed friend Ayako invited me to join her for a day of foodie exploration in Nice I jumped at the chance.

Ayako is as demanding and as curious as I am when it comes to food, probably more so and she's been roaming around in Nice lately, weeding out the good foodie places from the bad and the ugly. During her outings she's been texting me photos of her gastronomic discoveries that leave me crazed with envy and wanting to share some of the fun.

The Cours Salaya

Even though it's only a half hour drive away, I can count on my fingers the number of times I've visited Nice since moving to Monaco over a decade ago. Compared to the gentility and safety of Monaco, I find Nice rather edgy and unfriendly so it takes something really worthwhile to blast me out of my cocoon and down the coast. This foodie day was it.

We agreed on the Cours Salaya as our rendez-vous point.

The sky was an achingly clear blue and about 13°, perfect weather for exploring the narrow streets of Nice's Old Town.

One of only two Paysan vendors remain

On Mondays there's a fun, but expensive, antiques market. Today being Tuesday, the vendors sell fresh food and flowers with some soaps, tea towels and some charming artwork for tourists thrown in to the mix.

After roaming down both sides of the Cours to see what was on offer, I was somewhat saddened to see that out of the 30 or so vendors, just two were producteurs selling their own locally grown products - all the rest were resellers. This sent a bit of a chill down my spine. I've been seeing over the past few years the number of Paysan vendors dwindling and close to extinction. So sad. On we ventured...

Ayako and I spent the day roaming around, visiting some of her new food discoveries and when it was all said and done, we spent a wonderful day together which included a vegetarian lunch and abandoning ourselves to some delicious pastries - something I rarely do. The other shoe dropped when we had a flat tire and encountered perhaps the rudest woman we'd ever met in the parking at Nice Etoile. So it goes...

I thought I'd share with you some photos of Nice and what we saw during the day. Maybe you can join us next time?

The pastries at Deli Bo were worth the calories

Mushrooms from France and the USA

Little tulip embryos in the Cours Salaya market

Mail delivery the traditional way

I'm a real fan of vintage French signage

Fish market in the Place St François

Chestnut Pannetone at the Italian shop

Marzipan fruit from a vendor in the Cours Salaya

Fig sausage from a vendor in the Cours Salaya. It's served with cheese or just eaten as is

My favourite building in Nice: Tête Carré by French artist Sacha Sosno. It's a public library.

5 comments:

Oh my goodness, beautiful photos, as always. I love seeing things through your eye. So, did you find Nice edgy or welcoming? Certainly, its reputation is not sparkling but I admit to know it not at all! I would love to go to the Chagall museum however.

And when you come in February, I just ask one thing: that you are here for a Saturday. I might have said that already but I want to take you to the market. Yes, there is a huge percentage of resellers, but there are also producteurs a plenty plus producteurs bio and yesterday there was a coin paysan!

Loved the walk about. Never have seen tulips like that. I spent a day and a night in Nice. I was sick from a night train from Rome (never again) but from what I saw, it was one of the most beautiful towns I've ever seen. I would love to go back and roam around.

It was edgy, in particular a woman in the parking garage at Nice Etoile who was so rude I obsessed about her for days afterwards! We will definitely visit you on a Saturday. Can hardly wait to meet your Paysan vendors.